When new Key West High School Principal Theresa Axford talks about a "team approach," it has nothing to do with athletics per se.

What she's talking about is alleviating some of the extra work that drove Peter Fraga from being the school's athletic director to being a physical education teacher.

Fraga says that he represented the school at more than 100 after-school sports activities each of the three years he was AD.

Axford, already ensconced and looking as if she's enjoying herself in the principal's office off Flagler Avenue after serving in a similar position at Sugarloaf School, is talking about spreading around the responsibilities. That would mean the three assistant principals, Chris Valdez, Christina McPherson and newly appointed Marla Russell, as well as the Student Activities team of Leslie Holmes, the unit's director; Neda Preston, the school's athletics business manager, and Jessy Hulme, the school's volleyball coach, will each have assignments to be at games or events, home and away. Axford assures she'll be attending "as many games as my schedule allows."

In the meantime, she's posting an ad for the athletic director position, will have a committee reduce the number, then dig in herself to make the final decision. "I want to check out all the applicants and make a decision by the end of the first week of August," she said. Fraga received a supplement of $4,575 to be AD, she said. School starts on Monday, Aug. 23, with the football classic against Coral Reef that Friday, Aug. 27, at 7:30 p.m. at Tommy Roberts Stadium.

The new AD, by district decree, cannot also be a coach "unless the program is in danger of folding."

Axford says she's "passionate" about education. She wants the new athletic director and the school's coaches "to be gentlemen, scholars and athletes themselves." She also wants them to be "passionate" about their jobs.

"They should have a strong interest in helping students to enjoy the sports they're playing," she said. "There's so much value in team sports. Sports build character." She said coaches "should present a positive image to the public. It's a positive school. Coaches should represent themselves well and set the tone." She said she expects coaches and athletes to exhibit good sportsmanship. "You work and you play in a team sport," she said. "It has to be work, but it's got to be fun, too. Of course, it's really nice to win."

Whether the coaches at the school meet those criteria will be up to the new athletic director, she said.

But, make no mistake about it. The next principal won't hesitate to make changes, if she thinks it's necessary.

Axford says she wants the high school coaches to be teachers, rather than working full-time elsewhere. That includes the next girls basketball coach. She said the school had received "about 11" applicants and said she was hoping to pair up that position with one of her new classroom hires.

The next principal played recreational tennis when she was a college student in Philadelphia and is now an avid walker. "I get in my 2½ hours of sweat every week," she says. Axford also says she's an "avid sports fan." "I love the (Florida) Marlins," she says.

Axford has a lengthy history in the Key West area, moving here in 1976 from Philadelphia. She, her husband, Bob, and their young son, visited her sister in Key West in February of 1976 "when it was 40 degrees in Philadelphia" and stayed. Now, they have a son, John, in Orlando, and a son, Rob, his wife, Rebecca, and a 2-year-old granddaughter, Isabella, in Durham, N.C.

Axford was born in Durham, and moved, when she was 6, with her family to Philadelphia. She received her bachelor's degree at an all-women's college, Gwynedd, in Philadelphia, majoring in English "with an interest in writing." Later, she received her masters at Nova Southeastern.

For her first 10 years in Key West, she was at Mary Immaculate High School, serving as principal there for the last three years of the high school's existence, before she moved over to Key West High School. "We really put up a good fight (to keep the school from closing)," she recalled.

She can talk about the "old days," with Bookie Hernandez, who hired her, Clarence Phillips, Tommy Roberts and Bobby Menendez.

For six years, she taught English and journalism at KWHS and assisted in helping students transition to their new high school.

In 1992, she became the assistant principal at Sugarloaf and had the same job at Sigsbee in the 1996-97 school year before she was named as principal at Sugarloaf.

She applied to be principal at the high school. "It's a really outstanding school," she says proudly. "It has community support and a strong faculty."

And, now, once again, it has Theresa Axford.

Sports Editor Ralph Morrow's Armchair Comment appears exclusively each Sunday in The Citizen. He can be reached at 305-292-7777, Ext. 264, at Rmorrow@keysnews.com and by Fax at 305-295-8016.